CORRECTION: Dec. 22, 2025: Line item increases for the city clerk’s office were for operations, not salaries
For fiscal year 2026, which runs from January to December, the outgoing Midway City Council has approved $2,337,769 in General Fund expenditures and $1,460,950 in Water Fund expenses, totaling $3,798,719.
Overall, General Fund spending is set to increase by $727,958.80 in the coming year. Of that amount, $303,769 will be transferred out of the Water Fund into the General Fund, $100,000 of which is listed as a “management fee.” That leaves the Water Fund with $245,781 in “excess revenues.”
When the council opened a public hearing on the proposed budget on Dec. 8, no members of the public spoke, and Mayor Levern Clancy moved to close the hearing within 15 seconds of opening it. The council then voted unanimously to pass the 2026 budget.
The council specified no reasons for the increases, although the electricity increase likely reflects higher utility costs statewide.
General Fund counts on $2,034,000 coming in
For 2026, Midway’s General Fund is based on $2,034,000 in revenues, compared to $1,548,000 in 2025. That’s an increase of $386,000.
The General Fund lists 6 revenue sources: taxes, licenses and permits, intergovernmental, charges for services, fines and forfeitures, and other revenue/financing sources.
Tax revenues are expected to increase in four categories:
- Title ad valorem taxes or TAVT: $360,000 (up $60,000)
- Public utilities franchise tax: $240,000 (up $20,000)
- Local Option Sales Tax: $440,000, up $45,000
- Insurance premium tax: $245,000 (up $66,000).
While licenses and permits showed no changes over 2025, the council also increased fees for certain alcoholic beverage license categories.
“Intergovernmental” covers federal Covid money that no longer comes in. It also covers state grants like Local Maintenance and Improvement Grants (LMIG), Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), and other funding sources like the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Midway had been ineligible for state and federal grants because it had failed to file several years of mandatory annual audits with the state.
“Charges for services” includes sanitation, which increased $15,000 over last year to $175,000.
Fines and forfeitures covers fines, which are not accounted for, and Municipal Court fines, which will more than double at $300,000. In 2025, the amended budget listed $135,000 in Municipal Court fines; in 2026, that amount is listed as $300,000.
“Other Revenue/Financing Sources” includes several items:
- “Interest Earned” is steady at $10,000, although the source or sources of that interest are not listed, and the annualized year to date projection is $10,848.
- “Community Events” leapt from $5,000 in 2025 to $15,000 in 2026.
- No revenue was listed for renting the Civic Center or from gains or losses on sales.
- “Miscellaneous” doubled from $5,000 in 2025 to $10,000 in 2026.
- “Management Fee from Water” is a $100,000 transfer from the Water Fund, which is separate from the General Fund.
- “Qualifying Fees” for local elections are projected year to date at $4,131.
Where will the money go?
The General Fund budget lists spending categories for Mayor/Council, City Clerk, Finance, Municipal Court, Police, Fire, and Streets.
Fire Department
The new full-time Midway Fire Department will cost more than three and a half times the 2025 fire budget, which was $205,650. In the coming year, the new department will cost $931,819 — an increase of $727,969.
The city will be financing its two new fire trucks for a decade. “Debt Service” in 2026 will be $221,000.
But the $10,000 budgeted in 2025 to rehab the old fire station is not listed as an expense in the coming year. One overhead door has been installed at the station, and Fire Chief Craig Reynolds said he expects the other to be installed this week.
Midway will hold a grand opening for the upgraded fire station on Saturday, Dec. 20.
Mayor/Council
The current mayor and council budgeted themselves $224,300 — an additional $41,950 over last year — which will be spent at the discretion of the new administration.
That includes:
- Salaries: $12,000 (up from $10,800)
- Council Allowance: $27,600 (up from $22,800)
- Personal Services: $4,000 (up from $3,000)
- Retirement Contributions: $5,000 (up from $3,000)
- Repairs and Maintenance: $2,000 (up from $1,000)
- Cleaning: $14,400 (up from $12,000)
The most striking increases were Website Expense at $10,000 (up from $2,500), Advertising $5,000, up from $1,000), Postage ($2,300, up from $250) and Festivals at $15,000 (up from $6,000). Festivals had been slated at $25,000 but the council moved $10,000 of that at the last minute to cover boardwalk repairs at Cay Creek Nature Preserve.
Mayor-elect Malcolm Williams said the website upgrades would include live streaming of council meetings, which has not happened since the COVID-19 crisis ended. Two new monitors have been mounted in council chambers, one on each side of the dais. Midway’s livestreaming device, similar to the one the City of Flemington uses to share its meetings, has sat unused on the dais for more than two years.
City Clerk
The City Clerk’s office is budgeted at $181,450 for 2026, an increase of $5,797.
Lynette Cook-Osborne, who was voted Georgia’s 2025 Clerk of the Year by her peers, will get a $4,597 increase for her office, with an increase of $4,400 for the clerk’s assistant’s operations.
Other line items of note include:
- Workers Comp: $1,000 (up from $550)
- Rental of Storage Unit: $2,000 (up from $1,800)
- Computer and Programming: $150 (down from $2,000)
- Communications Telephone: $2,000 (down from $6,000)
- Advertising: $0 (down from $500)
- Dues: $3,000 (up from $2,000)
Advertising is an expense commonly built into the clerk’s office, which files various public notices on behalf of the city with the legal organ.
Finance
Midway has more than doubled its budget for finance in 2026, after a year of playing catch up on previous audits owed to the state. In 2025, the city had budgeted $30,000 for “Professional Service and Survey,” For 2026, that amount is $78,500 — an increase of $47,000. There’s also $2,000 in bank fees for 2026 that didn’t exist last year.
Municipal Court
Municipal Court also got a $4,525 budget increase for the coming year: $117,000, up from $107,175 last year. But it is seeing several cuts, as well, including $4,000 in employee retirement benefits (down to $0), $200 in workers comp (also down to $0), $500 from the judge (down to $6,000), $175 from uniforms (down to $0), $400 from dues (also down to $0), and $2,100 from office supplies (down to $500).
Police Department
Midway’s Police Department will get a small increase of $1,812.40 in the coming year, bringing its budget to $486,000. Some personnel expenses have been cut: $218.60 in personnel expenses; $219 in retirement; $3,000 in workers comp; and $5,000 in employee benefits.
The department will get an additional $4,000 for uniforms; $3,500 for jail costs; $750 for transfers to state; and $2,000 for electricity.
Streets Department
The Streets Department saw significant cuts totaling $96,094.60, despite increases in several areas. While capital outlay for the department was cut by $135,000 to $0 this year, the council allocated Streets another $3,690 for salaries, $315.40 for employee benefits, and $900 for workers comp.
Other increases include:
- $8,000 for professional services (was $4,000; now $12,000)
- $20,000 for the sanitation contract (was $160,000; now $180,000)
- $10,000 for Cay Creek repairs and maintenance (was $0)
- $6,000 for electricity (was $70,000; now $76,000)
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